The Second Most Important Trilogy of the 1980s pt. I

So with my fifty dollar gift card to Barnes and Nobles(s) I got for Christmas I went straight to the DVDs and settled on a severely underrated box set. The Karate Kid Quadrilogy (K to the eighth). These movies are mildly remarkable for several reasons. Most importantly, unlike most eighties flicks centering on underdog adolescents - or adolescents period - it manages to hold up two decades or so later. For anyone who has indulged their nostalgia and mined the video rental store (or the 'Flix) for various remembered gems from the eighties, chances are they've been let down repeatedly. Not so with this movie, so 1. Karate Kid I (and arguably II) is improbably a solid movie by twenty-first century standards.

Without going into much explanation, the following further remarks:

2. Daniel-san gets his ass KICKED a lot. And I mean A LOT...just pummulled. The resilience of this guy through three films that all take place within 365 days is mesmerizing - yet not unrealistic - in a way that is difficult to describe.

3. The movie has subtle, albeit undeveloped, sentiments of anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism. As I type that I realize that that is a huge stretch, so let me qualify that by saying not really. The first movie is anti-rich, but there's nothing special about that I know. In KKII however I am interested in the constant reminders of the US military presence in Okinawa, and its disruption of the "town that time forgot." Also notable is Sato's emergence as a neo-feudal capitalist overlord who in part represents a permeation of gloabalization, eg. selling off parts of an ancient castle and eliminating the ancient economic and cultural glue of the town - the small time fishing and cannery industry. Etcetera etcetera. My already weak argument falls the hell apart with the ending when Sato becomes the reahbilitated philanthropist.

4. Quotability. As juvenile as that is, any line from Johnny and his punks, Mr. Miyagi, Sato and others = instant laughs.

This time around I also noticed the theme of fatherhood throughout both films. Some of that is obvious, but the parallels between Johnny's relationship with his sensei and Daniel's with his are not - at least they weren't to me. The theme continues in KKII when Miyagi loses his own father. Sato's nephew and Daniel proceed to get caught up in the complex feud between their respective father figures.

Unfortunately I think this theme breaks down when we get to the third film. We'll see.